So What is Fast Writing?

Once in a while, someone will tell me they wish they could write as fast as I do. Over the years it’s occurred quite a few times, but I’m still a little surprised when it happens because I think of myself as a very slow writer. Of course, I’ve told other writers that I wished I could write as fast as they. That got me thinking about how exactly to define ‘fast’ writing.

Something that confounds the issue, of course, is the difference between writing and publishing. The last time someone made a comment to me about being a fast writer was right after Days of Beer and In the Language of Scorpions came out, and after I mentioned that Under the Ember Star would likely be published this year. That’s not fast writing, though. That’s fast publishing. A third of Days of Beer was completed a couple of years ago, and I wrote the rest throughout November and December of 2011. That’s probably close to 15,000 new words in two months, which is actually kind of fast for me. As for “Scorpions,” the majority of the stories in there were reprinted from earlier magazine publications. I did write a couple of new pieces for that book, and I completed a number of stories that had been in rough draft form, but the total number of new words in that book was fairly small. “Ember Star” was written mostly last summer, 30,000 words over several months. I didn’t even average 500 words a day.

In order to try and understand more about my own productivity, I decided this year to keep word count records. I know many writers who do this routinely but I’ve never really made an effort to do so before. Well, the first month’s data is in and here are the results:

I produced 8033 new words of material that I hope to get published. This counts stories, introductions to stories, and material about stories that might go into a publication. It doesn’t count blog posts or letters of recommendation or other writing that I do as part of my job and life, but which isn’t going to be put on any bibliography of my publications. Although I don’t know exactly what my average monthly output is, I feel comfortable saying that this was actually an above average month for me.

January has 31 days so my average daily output was 259 words a day. That’s a little misleading because I didn’t write every day. I didn’t keep “exact” notes on when I wrote or didn’t, but looking back over my journal it looks like I wrote material that I hoped to publish on about 20 days of the month. That would bring my average daily production count up to a whopping 402 words a day. According to my journal, on my best day in January I did “about a thousand words.” None of that suggests to me that I am a fast writer.

I also realized, though, that word count is only a partial record of writing activity. I do a lot of revising and rewriting on my stuff. In other words, on the days I wrote I tended to work a lot harder than a new word count of 402 would suggest.

So if I’m not a fast writer, who is? Stephen King? King says he writes about 2,000 words a day. Considering that he’s a full time writer while I’m not, even two thousand doesn’t seem all that fast. But if he writes six days a week, that would give him a production of 634,000 words a year, or one and a half books considering the size of his novels. To average a million words a year would require around 2740 words a day, every day. Since I don’t imagine anyone writers 365 days a year, we’re probably talking about million word a year folks averaging 3,000 words a day or better. Now that seems pretty fast to me, but I’d like to know how many hours a day this writer works, and how much revision they do.

So. Is Stephen King a fast writer? What does it take to be considered a fast writer? Is fast even about word count? Or it about an attitude? Is it about a writer wanting to churn out the biggest word count possible in the least amount of time necessary, without worrying about achieving anything more than the lowest level of quality needed to get it published? What do you think?
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Kindle and Nook Collections

Some folks I know who are self-publishing on Kindle are talking about hundreds of sales for their works a month. (I don’t know any of those folks who are claiming thousands.) I have two self-published titles up on Amazon and Nook, Killing Trail and Days of Beer, and I haven’t come close to that number yet. Sales for Days of Beer have pretty well flatlined, but Killing Trail is still selling a few copies a month.

One thing the folks are saying who are publishing more is that it 1) helps to have more titles available, and 2) it helps if they are all basically in the same genre. I’m never going to be able to pull off the second one. I don’t read in any one genre and I just can’t focus my writing in one. I like stories of all kinds, and I want to write the kinds of stories I like to read. And I don’t want to use three or four different pseudonyms; I’d end up having to tell folks it was me, anyway.

However, I’ve decided that I’m going to put up at least two more ebooks from my own Razored Zen Press in 2012. One of them will not be the erotica collection I was talking about last year. I just decided I didn’t feel comfortable doing it. However, I do have two specific collections in mind that I will try to publish.

The first will be called Whiskey, Guns and Sin. It will be a noir/crime collection. The title story was previously published at Beat to a Pulp, but the ending is completely redone for this collection. The Swampy Jack story, “The Finest Cut” will also be in there. And another story, which I have an idea for but which hasn’t been written yet. I have a cover concept firmly in mind.

The second one will be a “Hauntings” collection. I have one story written for this already, called “Mouth Wet with Rain and Leaves.” There will be at least two more stories but I have to write them first. I have plenty of ideas. I don’t know what the collection title will be yet, but all the stories will deal with hauntings in some way or another. I have a cover idea for this one too, although not as firmly held.

Each of these collections will be shorter in total words than either Killing Trail or Days of Beer, but will contain three stories each and I’ll sell them for .99 cents. I’ll see if this will make any difference in my sales figures on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

For those of you who are saying, oh no, not more Gramlich already after Days of Beer in December and In the Language of Scorpions in January, it’s going to be at least a couple of months before “Whiskey” goes up, and quite a bit longer than that before the “Hauntings” collection is ready.

It’s a crazy new world of publishing out there. I haven’t the foggiest what is going to happen. But I'm going to have my stuff in the mix some way or another.
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Strange Worlds Contest: The Winner

Well, it took me longer than I'd planned to have my drawing for the copy of Strange Worlds, the illustrated Sword & Planet anthology that I have a story in. But it is now completed, as of about 9:00 this morning.

The winner is: Bernardl, and judging by his comments on Edgar Rice Burroughs I think the book has found a good home.

Sorry to all those who didn't win, and thank you for your patience.

Bernard, I have your email address so I'll email you later today about mailing you the book. Let me know if you want me to sign my story.

If anyone wants to purchase a copy of Strange Worlds, you can order them here. I'm going to order a few more copies myself for sale at some point. This month was not a good 'money' month, though.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on that post, and who faithful visit my blog. I appreciate you folks.
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Surprise blog at Novel Spaces

My post at Novel Spaces is still up today, but is the second post down from the top now. It's about "Surprise" in writing. If you haven't visited yet, perhaps you will today.

I haven't forgotten my giveaway. I promise. Someone will win a free copy of Strange Worlds. Soon. I've just been swamped with things coming up.

Thanks to all for reading.

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In the Language of Scorpions

The moonlight settled over the December beach like snow birds coming in to roost on an arctic plain. And the midnight world was brush-stroked in white, the white of sand and shells and stones, the white of bones and ghosts. In the midst of that white was a splatter of black, or what could have been red in brighter hours. It reminded Kyle Dupree of a snowflake in negative, and he thought it was incredibly beautiful until he realized what it represented. Then he dropped the cigarette he'd walked out on the beach to smoke, and reached down with his thumb to unsnap the strap that held his Colt Trooper in its holster.

In the Language of Scorpions is out from Borgo Press. I really love the cover. Maybe my favorite yet from Borgo/Wildside. This is a collection of my horror stories, written across some two decades. Some of the tales have been printed before but there are actually quite a few new ones written (or finished) for this collection.

The sample piece that opens this blog comes from a story called “Splatter of Black,” and it features the main character from my first novel, Cold in the Light. There are a few flash fictions here too, but most are full-length stories. Here are a few other story titles from the collection:

Still Life with Skulls
Roadkill
Razor White
Haunting Place
Wall of Love
Twenty-Four Mile Bridge

Just to let folks know. Most the books that people have seen from me so far, except for Midnight in Rosary, have been heavy on fantasy adventure. “Scorpions” is a horror collection. There are a lot of Twilight Zone type stories and tales inspired by writers like Edgar Allan Poe that any reader might enjoy. But there are also some stories that have graphic gore and explore very intense subject matter. Some folks find that kind of thing uncomfortable.

In the book itself, I inserted author notes in front of some tales to let readers know what they were in for. There are notes about each of the stories a the end of the book, too, which give more information about them. The most graphic tales are “Razor White,” “Splatter of Black,” and “Wall of Love.” These were all written during the heyday of “Splatterpunk.” If you like gore, those should satisfy you. And if you don’t like gore, there are plenty other tales that I think you would enjoy.

The books is available at Amazon at the moment, in both print and ebook. It will be available on Barnes & Noble soon.

Here’s the link for print

And for Kindle

Thanks, as always, for reading.
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Writing and Other Fun Things

I've finished two stories in the past few days. One was the "Swampy Jack" story, which ended up under the title "The Finest Cut." Several folks pointed out that the original title, "Swampy Jack's Finest Cut," might either have given too much away or may not have set the right tone. I agreed. I ended up keeping the character name "Swampy Jack," though, because it fits that character and how he portrays himself. The piece is pretty much pure noir.

The other story is a horror piece under the working title right now of: "A Mouth Wet With Rain and Leaves." Some day I'll post about short versus long titles. Personally, I'm a sucker for long titles as long as they have a poetic or humorous element to them. I don't buy books for their covers, but I probably have bought books before just because the title was so cool I figured I'd have to like the writing within.

Unfortunately, the work of the semester has also hit big time. I've got a couple of research proposals on my desk to review, a student paper to edit, a set of tests to grade, a brief note I have to write for a scholarly journal, and a long scholarly book that I've been asked to review. Lana says we need to grocery shop too!

This is not to mention any pleasure reading of the books and stories I have loaded on my Kindle or sitting on my desk from blog friends like Patti, Oscar, Bernard, O'Neil, Sid, Chris, and plenty of others that I'd like to get read.

I never wonder where all the time goes. I know exactly where it goes.

By the way, I am getting ready to close my giveaway for Strange Worlds and will have the drawing this weekend. If you haven't yet entered, all you have to do is leave a comment on This Post

The Drawing will likely be held Sunday so today and Saturday it is still open.
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